No Longer My Baby

Do you see this?

"No, what am I suppose to be seeing?"

Here's a close up... take a good look... what do you see?

Now...?

Nothing. The answer is a "nothing".

This is an empty space much like many others. So what's so special about this empty space?

Only moments before I took these pictures, this space was occupied by an item that's been a part of our family for almost seven years.

A crib.

In a way, this empty space signifies an ending of an era; the ending of a significant stage in our lives. The boy used the crib from day one and only fell out twice when we converted it to a toddler bed after moving into our house. He moved into his "big boy" twin bed the Christmas before the baby arrived, at which time she laid claim to the crib. She used the crib up until last October, when she decided it was no longer good enough for her and she moved herself into her twin bed. The crib has remained in her room ever since, unoccupied.

While we've decided we're done consciously attempting to add little ones to our family, banishing the crib to the basement made it feel so... well, final.

I find some consolation in the idea that in a few months the crib will gain new life as we are gifting it to family members.

The realization that my baby is no longer that is a difficult pill to swallow. As we approach her 3rd birthday with the boy's 7th birthday just a couple weeks after, I'm finding the necessity to accept my baby is now my "little girl" more and more unavoidable. Some days she flat-out surprises me with the complexity and maturity of things she says and does.

So while the absence of the crib has created an empty space, I'm enjoying the prospect of playtime, adventures and imaginative creativity that will occupy this space in the years to come.

And I know that no matter how big she may grow and how mature she may be...

She will always be my baby girl.